I read Believing is Seeing by Michael Guillen, as background research for another project that I am working on, and I am so glad I did. Michael is clearly a gifted communicator, highly intelligent and able to grasp incredibly complicated concepts and explain them back in a coherent way that is wholly understandable to the reader… especially someone like me who does not have much of a scientific brain. He makes the science accessible.
The topic of “science vs. religion” is loved by commentators from both sides, who love to prod the hornets’ nest, but Michael is fully qualified to comment from both camps… which of course are not opposing camps after all. He is honest about what is unknown by both science and religions, and his personal search for answers and truths is what is driving his studies and his writing.
Michael clearly has the most amazing enquiring mind and the ability to clearly see the important questions to answer. His enquiring mind alone has to be proof that there is an imaginative, infinitely creative God! He is an expert in explaining, which led to so many “wow” moments, as I thought to myself “I never realised that!”
The essence of the book is to explain the similarities between scientific thinking and Christian thinking and how the two are so closely aligned. It has many fascinating insights that lead the reader to challenge assumptions and probably many generally held preconceptions. This scientific approach to faith is fascinating and reasoned in a way I had never seen before.
There were occasions when the text dives down a path that was beyond my understanding on science, so some more scientifically minded readers may really enjoy those bits, but he always pulls back to clarify and explain.
It was fascinating, and enlightening, to learn that maths and physics, especially quantum physics, also need such an enormous amount of faith, that is not so far from religious faith at all. So was his scientific take on Christianity and the way Christians sometimes disagree, claim our opinions to be right and generally look to be authoritative, in matters of faith! Our willingness to contradict and even laud it over fellow Christians, when looked at with a scientific approach, seems so ridiculous! There is maybe a lesson for us all in this, to simply focus on Jesus, to cut through all the man-made rubbish that has been built up around Him… the religious white noise.
The book concludes with some challenging and profound questions to the reader, which should get everyone contemplating their view of faith, and some helpful tests to measure the strength of your personal worldview.
